Developer confident of monorail's timely opening
Developer confident of monorail's timely opening
Damar Harsanto, Jakarta
PT Jakarta Monorail is confident it will be able to finish
construction of the new monorail on schedule, including the
completion of the monorail's "green line", which is scheduled to
open by the end of 2006.
"So far, we don't see any significant problems that will
hamper the project due to the simultaneous assembling of the cars
and the construction of the rail lines," PT Indonesia Transit
Central (ITC) director Sukmawaty Sjukur told The Jakarta Post on
Sunday.
PT ITC -- comprised of local companies PT Adhi Karya, Global
Profex Synergy and PT Radiant Pillar Pacific -- owns a 55 percent
stake in PT Jakarta Monorail. The remaining 45 percent stake
belongs to British-based consortium Omnico, which includes Omnico
Holdings Ltd., Hitachi Asia Ltd. and four technology partners
from Singapore.
Sukmawaty said a total of 127 cars would be assembled at
Hitachi in Japan at the same time the developer was carrying out
the construction of the rail lines here.
"When the construction of the rail lines is complete, we will
be ready to import the cars," she said, adding that the
consortium would require between 20 and 25 months to finish the
import process for the monorail cars.
She also divulged that the developer had obtained about US$150
million (about Rp 1.41 trillion) in equity to finance the project
for at least the next three months.
"We will obtain loans in September. The loans will be in
rupiah and US dollars," she said, declining to elaborate on the
source of the loans.
PT Jakarta Monorail plans to raise the lion's share of the
estimated $630 million required for the project, or $480 million,
through soft loans.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri presided over a ceremony on
June 14 to mark the beginning of the project, with the first pile
being driven into the ground on Jl. Asia Afrika in Senayan,
Central Jakarta.
However, the Post observed on Sunday that little progress has
been made since that ceremony. Along the median strips of Jl.
Asia Afrika and Jl. Gerbang Pemuda, construction piles remain
stacked up waiting to be driven into the ground. The developer
plans to erect eight piles along each of the roads.
PT Jakarta Monorail president director Ruslan Diwirjo said the
company had to make some changes in response to noise complaints.
"We are going to use bore piles instead of hammering the piles
into the ground in order to reduce the noise .... The change is
in response to complaints from the management of the Hotel Mulia
Senayan," Ruslan said.
About 900 construction piles will be erected along the 27-
kilometer monorail route.
When completed, the monorail will consist of two lines, the
14.8-kilometer "green line" and the 12.2-kilometer "blue line".
The green line, which will have 17 stations, will serve
lucrative business areas in the city including Kuningan, Sudirman
and Senayan. The blue line, which will have 13 stations, will
connect eastern areas of the city such as Kampung Melayu and Roxy
to western Jakarta.
The green line is expected to be operational by December 2006
and the blue line in early 2007.
The monorail system will be capable of ferrying up to 270,000
passengers per day, with fares ranging between Rp 3,500 and Rp
7,500 for a one-way trip.